California community college presidents have a professional listserv where we share ideas and solicit feedback from our colleagues. Yesterday the following observation was posted by Dr. Kevin Walthers, Superintendent/President of Allan Hancock College. I found his insights to be of particular value and, with Kevin's permission, I'm sharing with you.
I went into a typical English Classroom, with 30 desks (one is tucked on the other side of the computer and is probably used as a table, but it could be a desk in the good old days).
So, let’s try some social distancing and remove about half of the desks (and use the “tucked” desk as a table) – there are now 17 desks left.
With this number, there is almost six feet between each column, but no distance between each row. So, let’s see a set up with six feet in all directions.
10 seats, with no ability for the faculty member to use any whiteboard – just the computer and projector. Almost all of our classes are M/W or T/TR. Trying to rotate 30 students seems unlikely – and this isn’t even considering ingress and egress through a standard door from an outdoor area that effectively functions like a hallway.
Engaging in this same exercise on our campus--especially in some of our smaller classes--will illustrate very vividly what we'll face if social distancing is a prerequisite to on-the-ground instruction.
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I thought it might help [our campus leaders] if we had a visual look at the option of reducing class size or doing a hybrid approach, so tonight I went over to one of our classrooms and rearranged some furniture. I thought I’d share the images with you. Maybe you will find it useful. I went into a typical English Classroom, with 30 desks (one is tucked on the other side of the computer and is probably used as a table, but it could be a desk in the good old days).
So, let’s try some social distancing and remove about half of the desks (and use the “tucked” desk as a table) – there are now 17 desks left.
With this number, there is almost six feet between each column, but no distance between each row. So, let’s see a set up with six feet in all directions.
10 seats, with no ability for the faculty member to use any whiteboard – just the computer and projector. Almost all of our classes are M/W or T/TR. Trying to rotate 30 students seems unlikely – and this isn’t even considering ingress and egress through a standard door from an outdoor area that effectively functions like a hallway.
Engaging in this same exercise on our campus--especially in some of our smaller classes--will illustrate very vividly what we'll face if social distancing is a prerequisite to on-the-ground instruction.